Thursday, February 17, 2011

Thor gets a final, more Earthbound theatrical trailer


This second Thor trailer (the third if you count the Comic-Con footage) seems like a whole different movie from the previous sells. Call this the 'general sell', but it basically tells the film from the point-of-view of the Earthlings as they discover this muscle-bound Australian who seems to have fantastical powers. The good news is that there is more screen-time for Natalie Portman and Kat Dennings (who seems to be the only one having fun) and less screen time for the flat Chris Hemsworth and the terribly-bored Anthony Hopkins. It still makes the picture look awfully small-scale, but it's more narratively-coherent than the prior trailers.

But this actually makes the film feel more like well, I Am Number Four (which this trailer will likely debut in front of tomorrow). In this sell, we get a strange, super-powered hunky dude who magically comes to Earth, courts a hot earth-girl, and finally defends new friends from those on his home-world who wish us harm. Sound familiar? The film has always given off a Masters of the Universe vibe, with most of the film taking place on cheap Earth sets with a bare minimum of Eternia (or in this case, Asgard) action. More importantly, the action beats actually set in Asgard don't feel the list bit real, both in their overtly green-screen-ish look (See Thor attack CGI monsters against an obviously CGI backdrop!) and their stilted choreography. And I'm a little tired of trailers that end with 'Hey, look at the giant monster we've got in reserve for the finale!' (ie - the 'Release the Kracken!' moment).

This trailer is indeed an improvement over the confusing and horribly paced initial sneak-peaks. As it is, the trailers have been so jumbled that their really is a certain amount of mystery regarding what kind of film it's going to be. As always, we'll see...

Scott Mendelson

7 comments:

geha714 said...

Kat Dennings FTW!

Kyle Leaman said...

Is the only action move they can come up with for Thor's hammer the simple toss? That's the way it seems in the trailer. I think if they just had one quick beat of him using the hammer in a way we wouldn't think it would increase interest by action fans that aren't necessarily pre-sold on superhero action films.

Scott Mendelson said...

Thank you Kyle... that was part of what felt so off, but I couldn't put my finger on it. It's like they only could afford to spend a few bucks on actual Asgard action, so they repeated the same 'Thor throws a hammer' shot over and over again, ala Superman IV: Quest For Peace.

Malik said...

Balanced post that raises more fair questions about Thor -- for me, the minimum hope is that the Norse One and Captain American don't eff things up for The Avengers.

Can a brother get a spell check for the post, though?

Unknown said...

Well hopefully, we will see Thor use his hammer in a way that showcases all of the elemental powers it posesses! I mean he is supposed to be the "thunder god" right?! Marvel better not let us down... again.

Isaac said...

Well hopefully, we will see Thor use his hammer in a way that showcases all of the elemental powers it posesses! I mean he is supposed to be the "thunder god" right?! Marvel better not let us down... again.

Scott Mendelson said...

Thank you Kyle... that was part of what felt so off, but I couldn't put my finger on it. It's like they only could afford to spend a few bucks on actual Asgard action, so they repeated the same 'Thor throws a hammer' shot over and over again, ala Superman IV: Quest For Peace.

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